MPs damn rail ‘commuter tax’ as higher fares come into effect

Proposed super-peak rail fares will be little more than a ‘tax on commuting’, MPs are warning.

The high-price tickets, being considered for the busiest rush-hour trains, will hit the lowest-paid workers who have no choice when they travelled, ministers are being told.

Instead of targeting passengers, ministers should be clamping down on greedy train companies using £4billion a year state subsidies to boost profits, the Commons transport select committee says.

Bruce Williamson, from campaign group Rail Future, echoed the MPs’ comments, saying: ‘The kind of people who commute at peak times don’t do it for fun they do it out of necessity. Cranking up peak fares yet further is simply shafting people who have to travel at that time.’

The MPs’ report comes days after inflation-busting average rises of 4.2 per cent for some fares, including season tickets, came into effect.

It is a response to rail tsar Sir Roy McNulty’s recent transport review which got the government to look at creating a super-peak fare for rush-hour and staggering off-peak prices.

But the report says ‘forms of demand management which would lead to even higher fares for commuters on peak-time trains’, should be ruled out.

The MPs’ report comes days after inflation-busting average rises came into effect (Picture: PA)

‘Higher prices at peak times might make a difference to demand at the margin but would for the most part be a tax on commuters who have no effective choice over how or when they travel,’ it says.

Chairwoman Louise Ellman added: ‘To drive efficiency savings the government must shine a light on complacent management, waste and profiteering by ensuring greater transparency in the finances of the rail industry.

‘It is vital we know far more about how public money is spent so that there is confidence it does not leak out of the system in the form of unjustified profits.’

But transport minister Simon Burns said: ‘Family budgets are being squeezed which is why we have cut planned fare rises from three per cent to one per cent above inflation until 2014.’

Responding to the report, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies Michael Roberts said: ‘We flatly reject the unfounded accusation that train companies are profiteering, an allegation which appears to be based on hearsay and flies in the face of the report’s own explicit statement that profits are “relatively small”.’